Review: ‘Stomp’

Members of the Stomp percussion troupe pound awayay on oil drums. The show comes to the Majestic Theatre Nov. 4-6, 2011.

At “Stomp” over the weekend, performers used dozens of household items as percussion instruments to produce jaw-dropping music, and visuals to match. They opened with push brooms, quickly broke out matchboxes, and eventually the thing flourished into a frenzy of oil drums, several kinds of trash cans, kitchen sinks, grocery bags (paper and plastic), paint buckets, newspapers, folding chairs, rubber hoses and Zippo lighters.

I’d never seen “Stomp.” I had friends who had been multiple times. And one of the things I kept hearing about was the urge to bang away at anything within arm’s reach after the show. And so I imagined the crowd inching towards the exits, passionately bopping away at each other’s heads producing a cacophony of hollow, “Three Stooges” sounds.

That didn’t happen. But one of the merchandise items was a pair of official “Stomp” drum sticks, and as a result, parts of the Majestic Theatre took a beating at the hands of children who couldn’t resist the urge.

Unexpected were the scenes that required complete silence from the audience. It wasn’t all denting trash cans and acrobatic drum solos. There are quieter moments as to not pound the audience into submission. For example, in the second sequence, the troupe used matchboxes to produce what could be the soundtrack for the heist scene of a movie. Later, lined up in a row, they used Zippo lighters like hand bells but instead of music it was an awe-inspiring light show.

They don’t talk, the performers. That, combined with their battered clothes and the hilarious timing of the slapstick was like having eight of Charlie Chaplin’s Tramps on one stage.